Browsing by Subject "Sweden"
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Item Beautifully blonde or enchantingly ugly : re-imagining the Swedish nation through text and image in the illustrated fairy tale annual Bland tomtar och troll (Amongst gnomes and trolls)(2014-05) Anderson, Matthew Owen; Belgum, Kirsten, 1959-Much like oft-repeated quotes or catchy movie soundtrack tunes, famous illustrations often outweigh and outlast their original contexts and establish themselves as iconic cultural reference points for generations to come. Over the last 100 years in Sweden, John Bauer’s fairy tale illustrations have maintained a strong grip on that nation’s popular imaginary through over thirty reprint editions, museum exhibits, stamp collections, and, of course, stylistic imitations. While their century-old narrative contexts remain relatively unknown and uninteresting to contemporary audiences, his beautifully blonde children, enchantingly ugly trolls, and stark, Swedish landscapes continue to be bought, sold, and validated as embodying a typically Swedish relationship to nature. Why John Bauer’s work has remained so influential over time while the publication they appeared in has faded is a question that many of his biographers have attempted to answer. Harald Schiller, the most thorough of these, claims that “when one sees [his] images in black and white or color, they capture one’s interest to such a degree that there is none left for the text” (152). This essay uses Schiller’s comment as a starting point to pose one answer to this question. By exploring the dynamic potential of the relationship between Bauer’s images and their early twentieth-century contexts, it locates the artist’s appeal over against his narrative guidelines and the historical movements of his time. To this end, its comparative analysis of the textual and visual narratives in the illustrated Swedish fairy tale annual, Bland tomtar och troll (Amongst Gnomes and Trolls) explores how the interplay between the historical pregnancy of its fairy tale stories and the Swedophilic affects of John Bauer’s illustrations contributes to the project of imagining and proliferating a new Swedish national identity at the beginning of the twentieth century.Item Josef Fares’ Zozo as accented cinema(2016-05) Alexander, Elizabeth Lindsay; Wilkinson, Lynn Rosellen; Ramirez Berg, CharlesIn 2005, the Lebanese-Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares, who had attained recognition in Sweden through the immigrant comedies Jalla! Jalla! (2000) and Kopps (2003), presented his third feature film and first drama, Zozo, inspired by Fares’s own migration to Sweden. Set in 1987 Beirut, Zozo portrays a ten-year boy who loses his parents during the Lebanese Civil War and who journeys to reunite with his grandparents already settled in Sweden. In Sweden, Zozo is forced to learn the host country’s language quickly and to understand the unwritten rules of his new culture. Like his grandparents, he will probably always have an accent and be recognizably the “other.” The film became Sweden’s national submission to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and its nomination not only raised questions on what Sweden and Swedishness mean in a contemporary global world, but it also reexamined the problems of nationality, location, identity, and historical memory in a borderless Europe. In this essay I argue that Zozo is an illustration of accented film, which means the film is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but a combination of both. Influenced by his deterritorialization from Lebanon and his current life in Sweden, the cinematographic stylistic choices of Josef Fares exhibit a “double consciousness” - multiple cultural identities at once. To further understand the Lebanese and Swedish elements in the film, I analyze how elements such as chronotopes (time-space), border crossing, epistolarity, and double consciousness are inscribed in the film. In addition, I use Laura U. Marks’ concept of fossils, radioactive recollection-objects. By employing Hamid Naficy’s accented cinema theory, I hope to explain how Josef Fares is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but an individual with multicultural identities, which reflect in the elements of the narrative and cinematographic style.Item The right to be free from offense : the development of hate speech laws in the European Union, UK, Canada, and Sweden(2011-05) Kyckelhahn, Tracey; Young, Michael P.; Sjoberg, Gideon; Ekland-Olson, Sheldon; Kelly, William R.; Smith, Steven K.With the increasing population heterogeneity and rising tensions in Western nations, the governments of those nations have sought ways to manage conflict between different groups. This often comes in the form of laws criminalizing certain speech, and numerous Western nations have passed bills strengthening sanctions against hate speech or adding previously unprotected groups. However, when the European Union attempted to pass strict hate speech legislation, many EU member states disagreed with its provisions and, due to the structure of the EU, managed to substantially change the resulting legislation. This study examines how proponents and opponents of hate speech legislative change frame the issue and the role the EU.Item Why do Swedes marry? examining the difference between marriage and cohabitation in Sweden(2015-08) Palmo, Nina Johanna; Raley, R. Kelly; Hummer, Robert; Osborne, Cynthia; Cavanagh, Shannon; Regnerus, MarkThe purpose of this dissertation is to investigate why Swedes marry. Sweden serves as an interesting case study in marriage because of its low levels of inequality, strong commitment to egalitarianism, and broad social and institutional support for cohabitation. Understanding how socioeconomic and ideological factors are associated with marriage in Sweden provides insight into the meaning of marriage in a culture where many practical and traditional motivations for marriage have been eliminated. Chapter 2 describes the pattern of entry into cohabitation, exit out of cohabitation, and transition to marriage and parenthood in Sweden. The findings suggest that the Swedish patterns are outliers in the late timing of marriage relative to childbearing and the long duration of cohabitating unions. Chapter 3 investigates how socioeconomic and ideological factors shape the timing of marriage relative to childbearing in Sweden. The results show that high levels of socioeconomic status are associated with early marriage relative to childbearing and low levels of socioeconomic status are associated with late marriage relative to childbearing and childbearing without marriage. Beliefs in traditional gender roles are also associated with late marriage relative to childbearing, whereas egalitarian and workoriented beliefs are associated with the more traditional timing of marriage prior to childbearing. In other words, attitudes and values associated with the Second Demographic Transition are not linked to the decoupling of marriage and childbearing. Instead, socioeconomic resources appear to be a key factor in explaining differences in marriage timing relative to childbearing. Chapter 4 investigates how kin relationships and socioeconomic resources are associated with the transition from cohabitation to marriage in Sweden. Results show that strong kin relationships are associated with an increased likelihood of marriage for women, but not men. Higher levels of socioeconomic resources are associated with an increased likelihood of the transition from cohabitation to marriage for both women and men. The results suggest that even in a culture that casts marriage as one of several acceptable family forms, marriage continues to maintain popularity and distinguishes itself by being the most prestigious institution for the unfolding of family life.Item Work-family policy and working mothers : a comparative study of Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States(2016-05) Collins, Caitlyn McKenzie; Williams, Christine L., 1959-; Glass, Jennifer L; Rudrappa, Sharmila; Pettit, Becky; Osborne, CynthiaThroughout the industrialized west, working mothers face common struggles to balance the demands of caring for their children with their pursuit of paid work. However, nations vary widely in their support for these women. This study compares the work-family policies in four countries that exemplify each of the western welfare regimes: Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the United States. Using 135 in-depth interviews, I examine how these policies play out in the daily lives of middle-income working mothers in each country. Drawing on theories of gendered governance, I show how policies intended to help women balance work and family reflect distinctive cultural ideals of motherhood, employment, and gender equality. In countries with policies rooted in strong maternalist traditions, like areas of western Germany and Italy, working mothers experienced stigma for pursuing careers and substantial work-family conflict. In the former East Germany, with its history of mandated full employment, mothers did not face stigma for working, but tended to curtail their career ambitions. Working mothers in Sweden – renowned for its extensive, gender-equal support system – seemed the most contented with their work-family balance. American working mothers received the least policy support and experienced the most guilt and strain in my sample. However, in all cases, working mothers felt that they were held to unrealistic standards at home and/or at work, suggesting that even the most progressive social policies are not enough. Lessening the work-family conflict faced by working mothers will require both cultural changes in the definition of motherhood and fatherhood and the structural reorganization of work and family.